Adding to the controversy over for-profit universities, a Florida professor was fired after allegedly attempting to use a degree from an unaccredited college to get a raise.
Earlier this week, Pensacola State College fired professor Robert Ardis for presenting what officials says was an unaccredited master’s degree.
Professor Ardis had adequate credentials to teach at the college, according to the president of the college, Ed Meadows. However, it was Ardis’s attempt to present a second masters degree that put him in trouble with the college.
Ardis had recently returned from a paid sabbatical, during which the professor was given time off to earn a master’s degree.
“When a faculty member has a sabbatical, he or she presents a report and his report was unacceptable simply because he attempted to provide us with a second master’s degree from an institution that is not accredited,” Meadows said.
Meadows said the college’s Board of Trustees was informed of Ardis’ report and actions were taken against the professor.
The board later voted to dismiss Ardis, Meadows said.
Problems such as these have arisen from the dealings of degree mills. Degree mills are criminal businesses that produce falsified degrees.
Noel Radomski, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Post-secondary Education, explained that degree mills become more prominent as for-profit colleges grow in popularity.
A for-profit college is a private teaching institution that is not run through federal or state funds.
Because Wisconsin does not house many for-profit colleges, fraudulent degrees have not become a problem in the state, according to Radmonski.
“Right now, Wisconsin has just over 160 for-profit colleges and we only have three full-time employees on the Educational Approval Board (EAB) who regulate for-profit colleges and universities,” Radomski said. “Compared to Florida who has 20 employees and New York who has 40, that is pretty small.”
Radomski hopes the problem will not spread into major institutions, such as the University of Wisconsin System, where diligent recruitment keeps out the bad degrees.
“We have background information on the issue but it’s not a problem in Wisconsin yet,” Radomski said. “If it becomes a problem, we will have to react and make legislation.”